University of Wisconsin Press, 2022 Paper: 978-0-299-33364-5 | eISBN: 978-0-299-33368-3 Library of Congress Classification PS3608.O47738D68 2022 Dewey Decimal Classification 813.6
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK Dorothy “Dot” Greenbaum and Rafaela “Ralfie” Santopietro have been together for years, but as they age, their stable lives begin to show cracks. Ralfie can’t navigate the stairs in their home after a debilitating knee replacement and Dot’s heart condition throws into question the viability of their careers, their housing, and their relationship. In their late sixties with no kids to lean on, the two women must come to terms with unforeseen questions of identity, love, and family.
Dot is caring but hides hurtful secrets. Ralfie’s gruffness masks the physical and emotional pain she endures. Friends and relatives don’t necessarily offer appealing role models for their third act. Dot’s sister Susan is pushing them toward a stuffy “55 or better” community out in the ’burbs, populated by aging straights who mistake the butch Ralfie for a frumpy old man. Eighty-year-old Viola—Dot’s friend and sometime lover—lives alone and refuses help, even as she experiences a devastating fall. Rife with Hoffman’s characteristic wit, Dot & Ralfie takes a hard, sometimes painful look at elder care in the LGBTQ+ community, and the unique struggles that come with getting older outside of heteronormative structures.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Amy Hoffman is the author of the novel The Off Season and the memoirs Lies about My Family, An Army of Ex-Lovers, and Hospital Time. Formerly the editor in chief of Women’s Review of Books, she currently teaches writing at Emerson College and in the Solstice Low-Residency MFA Program. Her writing has appeared in the Boston Review, the Gay & Lesbian Review, and other publications.
REVIEWS
“Amy Hoffman creates unforgettable characters, and her scintillating wit keeps things lively even in the face of the decline that awaits us all.”—Alison Bechdel, author of The Secret to Superhuman Strength
“Amy Hoffman has a unique talent for winning over her readers with distinctive characters, precise, effortless prose, and deadpan humor that can break your heart on one page and have you LOL-ing on the next. Dot & Ralfie is a shrewd examination of the many indignities of aging, economic inequality, and the broken healthcare system, all masked as an irresistible domestic comedy.”—Stephen McCauley, author of My Ex-Life
“We know Dot and Ralfie from back in the day in Boston! Was it at the bar? Dyke softball? Who can remember? Anyway, it’s great to catch up with them – bum knees, chair stairs, crazy jobs, money worries, aging in place. In place of what? We loved spending time with them.”—Kate Clinton, humorist, and Urvashi Vaid, activist
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
1 There’s Ralfie
2 So There’s Dot
3 The Only Thing to Live For
4 Not a Good Time
5 An Expedition
6 A Big Waste of Time
7 Who Knows Where
8 Ralfie on the Job
9 The Weight Slams Down
10 Oxygen
11 All Sorts of New Vocabulary
12 Ralfie Feels Desperate
13 The Characteristic Housing
14 A Person of Strong Character
15 It Doesn’t End There
16 Silence
17 Dot Drags Herself
18 The Particular Quiet of the Closed Library
19 Ralfie Falls Out of a Tree
20 There’s Ralfie. Again.
21 Viola Calls
22 Dot Does Her Duties
23 Ralfie Gets a Bad Feeling
24 “What?”
25 A Call to Susan
26 Ralfie at the Bank
27 They Still Can’t Believe
28 Asking Viola
29 Her Breakfast Egg
30 Unresolvable Life Crises
31 A Cold, Rainy Sunday
32 A Few Stray Magenta Highlights
33 A Favor for Jim’s Mom
34 Susan Tries Again
35 Alone and Confused
36 Distressing Visits
37 Jim Is Wary
38 The Tran Family at the Door
39 An Item
40 Ralfie Does Not Insist
41 Expedition #2
42 Recuperating
43 A Big Honking Piece of Machinery
44 When They Were Kids
45 Finished
46 The Ducky
Acknowledgments
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University of Wisconsin Press, 2022 Paper: 978-0-299-33364-5 eISBN: 978-0-299-33368-3
Dorothy “Dot” Greenbaum and Rafaela “Ralfie” Santopietro have been together for years, but as they age, their stable lives begin to show cracks. Ralfie can’t navigate the stairs in their home after a debilitating knee replacement and Dot’s heart condition throws into question the viability of their careers, their housing, and their relationship. In their late sixties with no kids to lean on, the two women must come to terms with unforeseen questions of identity, love, and family.
Dot is caring but hides hurtful secrets. Ralfie’s gruffness masks the physical and emotional pain she endures. Friends and relatives don’t necessarily offer appealing role models for their third act. Dot’s sister Susan is pushing them toward a stuffy “55 or better” community out in the ’burbs, populated by aging straights who mistake the butch Ralfie for a frumpy old man. Eighty-year-old Viola—Dot’s friend and sometime lover—lives alone and refuses help, even as she experiences a devastating fall. Rife with Hoffman’s characteristic wit, Dot & Ralfie takes a hard, sometimes painful look at elder care in the LGBTQ+ community, and the unique struggles that come with getting older outside of heteronormative structures.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Amy Hoffman is the author of the novel The Off Season and the memoirs Lies about My Family, An Army of Ex-Lovers, and Hospital Time. Formerly the editor in chief of Women’s Review of Books, she currently teaches writing at Emerson College and in the Solstice Low-Residency MFA Program. Her writing has appeared in the Boston Review, the Gay & Lesbian Review, and other publications.
REVIEWS
“Amy Hoffman creates unforgettable characters, and her scintillating wit keeps things lively even in the face of the decline that awaits us all.”—Alison Bechdel, author of The Secret to Superhuman Strength
“Amy Hoffman has a unique talent for winning over her readers with distinctive characters, precise, effortless prose, and deadpan humor that can break your heart on one page and have you LOL-ing on the next. Dot & Ralfie is a shrewd examination of the many indignities of aging, economic inequality, and the broken healthcare system, all masked as an irresistible domestic comedy.”—Stephen McCauley, author of My Ex-Life
“We know Dot and Ralfie from back in the day in Boston! Was it at the bar? Dyke softball? Who can remember? Anyway, it’s great to catch up with them – bum knees, chair stairs, crazy jobs, money worries, aging in place. In place of what? We loved spending time with them.”—Kate Clinton, humorist, and Urvashi Vaid, activist
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
1 There’s Ralfie
2 So There’s Dot
3 The Only Thing to Live For
4 Not a Good Time
5 An Expedition
6 A Big Waste of Time
7 Who Knows Where
8 Ralfie on the Job
9 The Weight Slams Down
10 Oxygen
11 All Sorts of New Vocabulary
12 Ralfie Feels Desperate
13 The Characteristic Housing
14 A Person of Strong Character
15 It Doesn’t End There
16 Silence
17 Dot Drags Herself
18 The Particular Quiet of the Closed Library
19 Ralfie Falls Out of a Tree
20 There’s Ralfie. Again.
21 Viola Calls
22 Dot Does Her Duties
23 Ralfie Gets a Bad Feeling
24 “What?”
25 A Call to Susan
26 Ralfie at the Bank
27 They Still Can’t Believe
28 Asking Viola
29 Her Breakfast Egg
30 Unresolvable Life Crises
31 A Cold, Rainy Sunday
32 A Few Stray Magenta Highlights
33 A Favor for Jim’s Mom
34 Susan Tries Again
35 Alone and Confused
36 Distressing Visits
37 Jim Is Wary
38 The Tran Family at the Door
39 An Item
40 Ralfie Does Not Insist
41 Expedition #2
42 Recuperating
43 A Big Honking Piece of Machinery
44 When They Were Kids
45 Finished
46 The Ducky
Acknowledgments
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE